Thursday, January 3, 2013

E-Zines, Flash Fiction and More Free Fiction

Lots more great free fiction today including a nice looking new SF e-zine, Indian SF (h/t SF Signal) and the always great Abyss & Apex. There are many flash fiction stories today, and much more. I'll try to have a second post today - no promises.

Today's "QD Radio" is the first episode of the classic SF radio series Dimension X, "No Contact""A test pilot on an experimental high altitude aircraft with only ten
minutes worth of fuel disappears from radar for ten hours, yet returns
safely. Of course, it is impossible, as is his story of contact with
aliens and the dire warning they have for Mankind." - OTRplotspot.

[Art from Indian SF #1, linked below.]

Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Miracle on Tau Prime" by Alex Shvartsman. "The investigators arrived in the morning. Father Laughlin and Father
Sauer trudged through the dense, chilly fog from their shuttle to the
spaceport terminal just as the twin suns of the Tau system began to
paint the eastern horizon in yellow hues."

“Heartland” by Crystal Koo. "Whenever my wife spoke Mongolian, it sounded like a gale going through
khag bones. I always saw a picture in my head every time I heard it:
Maral-Erdene Otryadyn in her youth, pitching gigantic tents, racing
large bovines, Earth’s yellow-dwarf sun setting over the grasslands. The
only thing wrong with the picture was I wasn’t in it."
“Acrimony Grout” by Jay Caselberg. "had a well-developed sense of his place in the cosmos. From his
magnificent tick-tock spire overlooking the city he would scan the
surrounds, peering out from his narrow slit-window and occasionally
reach up to pat down the lank remaining strands of his buttercup-tinged
hair across his balding moon-like pate. This ritual occurred daily, if
not more frequently. Of course, his ministrations were unconscious:
Acrimony Grout was barely aware of it, if at all."
“The Shadow Artist” by Ruth Nestvold. "The Shadow Artist bent slowly in the late afternoon light, stretching
one arm high, fingers spread wide, and twisting the other arm just
right, so the shadow cast along Seward Avenue became a snake climbing up
a tree. Here, just south of the Arctic circle, shortly after summer
solstice, he would be able to play with light and shadow for hours,
telling stories in the main street of Rolynka, Alaska, nearly all night
if he wanted."
“And Our Lady Splendor” by Matthew Wuertz. "A small, black screen projected Gavin’s typed commands as he drummed
them out from memory. His eyes strayed to the viewport; had it not
automatically sealed itself during the last course change, Gavin would
have faced a blinding view of the sun."
“The Third Attractor” by Mjke Wood. “I . . . I’m sorry?” Vienna Marshall was startled. She felt heat at the
back of her neck. She became aware of the watching eyes, Parisian
intellectuals, jazz club regulars, sitting all around her, amused,
waiting to see how she would reply.

"Staying Behind" by Ken Liu. "Those that have uploaded to machines try to steal children."
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" by Ram V. "There is more to the wolves that the boy sees in his dreams."
"Goddess" by Lavanya Karthik. "A man finds a Goddess with three heads in Bhopal after the Gas."